In memory of Nicola Coy

2015 has come and now nearly gone. Time flies. It is 6 years ago today that we lost Nicola. Last Friday, we held the third meeting of the NICOLA COY APPRECIATION SOCIETY at Fontwell Park where we sponsored a race in her name. If you go to http://www.polopictures.co.uk/p256028503 you will see some of the "official" photos from the day. Nicola's race is towards the end, and if you go to http://www.attheraces.com/racecard/Fontwell/02-October-2015/1515 you can watch a replay of the race. No coincidence that the winning jockey was wearing pink to accompany the pink that the 50 NCAS members were wearing iI was a glorious sunny day. I even won some money to make it a perfect day.

Half of us stayed at the Swan Hotel in Arundel for the evening to keep the celebration going. A brilliant day to celebrate the life of a brilliant lady.

Same again next year everyone?

2013 was always going to be a year of celebration for us: 30 years since we met and our 25th wedding anniversary! I decided to celebrate the latter quietly, in reflection of Nicola and my lives together, but wanted to make a bit of a splash to celebrate 30 years of Nikki being the most important person in my life. The date was 4th October and I managed to assemble 97 (a huge number given it was a weekday) of our friends and family for a day of fun and hospitality at Fontwell Park racecourse. I sponsored a race: the NICOLA COY APPRECIATION SOCIETY BREAKTHROUGH Novices Chase. We all wore pink to raise the profile of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Why Fontwell Park? Well it's the last social thing Nikki and I did together so will be forever one of my favourite places on the planet.

We all had a great time - the party adjourned to the Swan Hotel in Arundel (great place, lovely staff) and continued into the early hours! And the "small" donation I asked each guest to make amounted to a gob-smacking £7,400 raised for Nicola's Tribute Fund.

This means the fund has whizzed past £35,000, so now I will have to think of the next fundraising idea to get to £40,000 - maybe a re-run of the World Cup score prediction competition from 4 years ago!

Thank you so much to everyone who has supported Nicola, me and Breakthrough over the last 4 years.

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Nicola, my darling wife, passed away on 9th October 2009 aged just 44. She was the sweetest, kindest person you could ever wish to meet. But don't take my word for it...here are some of the words that have been used by her family, friends and colleagues, who will all miss her very much:

Brave, Courageous, Warm, Generous
Diligent, Professional, Determined, Conscientious, Even-tempered, Polite, Intelligent, Thoughtful, Sympathetic, Precious, Spirited, Inspiring, Loving, Devoted, Caring.

Nicola suffered from a very aggressive triple negative breast cancer. She did not suffer long, with only 16 days between finding out that the disease had spread and her peaceful passing. She went down fighting but even Nikki’s determination to “beat this b*****d disease” couldn’t overcome such a horrible, horrible strain of a horrible, horrible disease.

So I would like to ask your help to join me in supporting research into this “triple negative” breast cancer. There are up to 6,000 new cases of triple negative diagnosed each year and whilst this is only a relatively small proportion of the nearly 50,000 new breast cancer diagnoses, the fact that triple negative is the most aggressive and is more prevalent in younger women (and those of African origin), my fear is that many more families will be torn apart by this disease.

I know there are countless worthy causes out there, but if you could find something extra for this in Nicola’s memory, I thank you on her, and my, behalf. Nicola would want something positive to come out of her untimely passing and by helping others it will bring a big smile to her face. Even if you were not lucky enough to know Nicola, please don't let this put you off making a contribution to help others like Nicola in the future.

If you can find some time, please leave me and Nicola a message.

Many thanks and much love

Gary x

PS As we have now made the initial target of £10,000, I have upped this...not by too much, but hopefully enough to ensure we don't relax from the goal of making as much money as possible.

PPS The second milestone has now been shattered so I've had to increase the target again to £15,000. I hope that I can add a similar PPPS in the near future. With many many thanks on behalf of Nicola, me and Breakthrough Breast Cancer. You have all been so generous so far, please keep it up!

PPPS YOUR GENEROSITY CONTINUES TO ASTOUND AND WE HAVE NOW RAISED OVER £15,000. I KNOW THAT IT IS AMBITIOUS BUT I HAVE INCREASED THE TARGET TO £20,000. PLEASE CONTINUE TO DONATE TO NICOLA'S FUND OVER THE COMING DAYS, WEEKS AND MONTHS AND YOU NEVER KNOW, MAYBE £20,000 IS ATTAINABLE!!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH AGAIN. GARY XX

PPPPS So now I'm running a half marathon and looking for more contributions to the Fund to make my pain and suffering worthwhile. Given that we went through the £20k target a little while ago, another increase is long overdue...£25k this time, so please continue to give what you can in Nicola's memory to such a worthy cause!